Automated Schedule Systems and Methods

ABSTRACT

Automated notification and acceptance/rejection of appointment or opening in a calendar/schedule via network-based systems and methods, including application over social networks and website based connection between users and service providers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention is related to one or more prior-filed co-pendingpatent applications and claims priority therefrom; it is a continuationof U.S. application Ser. No. 13/163,684, filed Jun. 18, 2011, whichclaims the benefit from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/356,312 filed Jun. 18, 2010, each of which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to scheduling systems and methods and,more specifically, to automated schedule and calendar systems andmethods with network-based notification of specific time-slot openingsor availability.

2. Description of the Prior Art

It is generally known in the prior art to provide social networkingsystems that provide a match based on compatibility of user interests.Social networking systems based on user-generated lists of interests andgoals where the contents of the list are prioritized or ranked are alsoknown.

By way of example: U.S. Pat. No. 7,451,161; US Pub. Nos. 2006/0247940 &2009/0024548 for Compatibility scoring of users in social networking,assigned to Friendster, Inc., describes a method of quantifyingcompatibility of interests or similarity in interests between members ofa social network and providing a match based on the compatibleinterests. A set of individuals who are within a predetermined degree ofseparation from a first individual are taken and a compatibility scoreis computed between the first individual and each of the individuals inthe set. Compatibility of the individuals is scored based oncompatibility of interests, and these compatibility results andcompatibility scores are presented to the individuals. Compatibilityscores are linked to interest profiles, encouraging people to enterinterests so the site can find other people who share the same orcompatible interests.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,502,748 for Job matching system and method, assigned toCareerious Inc., describes a j ob matching system and method thatutilizes personality profiles and candidate interests to matchcandidates to jobs. Employment position data is received from potentialemployers and individual candidate data is received from job candidates.The candidate data is compared with the employment position data tocreate a list of employment positions that match the candidate data. Ascore indicative of a candidates' suitability for a given employmentopportunity is calculated from the comparison of the employment positiondata and individual candidate data.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,160 for Choice-based relationship system (CRS),assigned to Grove, describes a system to connect event participants withother event participants having similar interests. The event may be abusiness conference, a cruise, a social gathering, or a virtual event.Profiles are created for the participants indicating preferences andcharacteristics of the participants. In response to an inquiry from aparticipant, profiles are compared and matches to other participantswith similar interests are generated. This system allows theparticipants to connect with each other before, during, and after theevent.

US Pub. No. 2008/0288494 for System enabling social networking throughuser-generated lists, describes a social networking method using usergenerated lists. A list database is generated based on the lists createdor populated by users of the system. The list database may also includepreviously built lists or lists of publications, organizations, orgroups. The method includes receiving a first list of items from a firstuser, receiving a second list of items from a second user. Thedetermination of position of items in a third list includes performing amathematical computation involving the first value corresponding to afirst position of the first item in the first list and the second valuecorresponding to a second position of the first item in the second list.The third list is then displayed on the computer screen with items inthat order. Users can generate a list (e.g., favorite movies) and sharethe list with others who can then rank the list according to their ownpreferences. Users can also search or browse lists created by others.

US Pub. No. 2009/0187829 for aggregation and visualization of reusedshared lists, describes a shared list social networking system andprovides for aggregating and visualizing reused shared lists. An exampleof a shared list is a rank-ordered list of likes or dislikes. Describesthat users can select an existing shared list on a topic, viewrank-ordered results, create a new shared list on the topicincorporating users individual rank-ordering of the shared list, andsave the new shared list in association with the existing shared list.An aggregation view displays items for each rank or lists items in rankorder based on the rankings of multiple users.

US Pub. No. 2008/0162431 for identifying interest twins in an onlinecommunity, describes a method for identifying members in an onlinecommunity with similar interests to other members of the onlinecommunity, and determining if the users are “interest twins”. “Interesttwins” are members that have demonstrated interest in the same orsimilar items. Member interests are identified by “interest-actions”such as following a link to a web page, bookmarking a web page, taggingitems, playing or downloading videos, etc. Information on “interesttwins” is used to enhance the experience of the user, such as ranking orhighlighting search results from a search engine based on the interestsof a user's “interest twin”. This invention does not appear to describeintroductions or personal connections with “interest twins”.

US Pub. No. 2009/0327270 for Using variation in user interest to enhancethe search experience describes a method to enhance the searchexperience by making the results list responsive to the interests ofdifferent individuals and groups of users. The system includes a searchinterface that determines the variability of search interests (e.g.,goals) given queries, and a search experience enhancer. The searchinterface accepts a query from a user as input, and determines avariability in user interest (e.g. in search goals) for the query.

Furthermore, it is generally known to provide calendar, schedule, ortime-based systems and methods using computer software and network orcloud-based access, or shared calendaring. The present invention relatesto calendar, schedule, and/or time-based systems and methods usingcomputer software for providing network or cloud-based notification fortime slot openings or calendar/schedule availability including providingnotification system based upon predetermined social network connectionsto individuals, companies, and service providers of interest to aparticipant or user. Users of the system can opt-in to the notificationsystem based upon a click-select activation or hyperlink from aninteractive graphical user interface (GUI) on a website accessed througha network, such as the internet.

US Publication No. 2008/0098313 for System and method for developing andmanaging group social networks describes a system and method forfacilitating the configuration and management of events within a socialnetworking system, wherein members of similar or different geographiclocations and/or interests, hobbies, social status, relationship statuscan interact with the system to view activities, register or participatein those activities and schedule activities; further describes apersonal workspace that enables the members of the network to view thepersonal calendar and the scheduled events and activities, andregistration.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,978,246 for System and method for matching entitiesutilizing on electronic calendar system, assigned to IBM, describes anintegrated matching service and calendaring system. In addition to thetypical items represented by a calendared event, it utilizes a calendarevent to represent an activity, the requirements to match the activity,the entity attributes, and any match results; an entity defines criteriaand information for a matching activity, and the information andcriteria concerning the activity are represented as a calendar event inan electronic calendaring system; calendar events representing matchingactivities and criteria are communicated to a matching server via acalendar access protocol, the matching server notifies suitable matches,if any, and notifies the entities involved of the match.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,383,303 for System and method for integrating personalinformation management and messaging applications, describes acomputer-implemented method that identifies a set of contacts and/orcontact groups permitted to contact a user of a data processing deviceduring a scheduled event in an electronic calendar; a communicationevent is received from a first contact over a communication channel andis compared against the identified set of contacts and/or contact groupspermitted to contact the user. Further, the user of the communicationevent is notified during the scheduled event only if the first contactis in the set of contacts and/or contact groups.

US Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0191035 for Computerizedcustomizable scheduler, which describes a customizable software methodfor creating and maintaining a scheduling calendar for people andresources in a professional, personal, or service environment, includingmaintaining and updating a database to augment the scheduling calendar,with extensive reporting functions for planning, management, andmarketing functions of an individual or business.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,174,303; US Pub. No. 2002/0032588 for Customer drivensponsor controlled network based graphical scheduling system and method,describing a method for developing a schedule for a sponsoringorganization and includes providing a sponsor controlled customerdatabase containing information relevant to individual customers whoperiodically need to schedule appointments with the sponsoringorganization, a set of sponsor parameters associated with each customer,which define possible appointment times for a customer, and a centralcontroller for displaying and managing a schedule for the sponsoringorganization; the system contacts some of the customers concerningscheduling appointments with the available appointment times determinedby the sponsor parameters associated with the individual customer viathe electronic network, and the system receiving scheduling informationvia the electronic network from at least some of the customers; may alsoinclude a graphical calendar to at least some customers, wherein thecustomer can schedule an appointment by selecting the icon associatedwith the desired appointment time; the controller may use email tocontact customers, and use the Web to supply available appointment timesand receive scheduling information from the customers; offlinecommunication may also be used.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,406 for Scheduling system for use between users onthe web, describes a system comprising an end user interface that isgenerated in standard page markup syntax and sent using standardcommunication protocols to allow users to communicate with the system,delivering the scheduling events to end users of the system, and meansfor confirming proposed events by the end users; the computer systemsinclude a client interface that allows an initial end user tocommunicate a desire to schedule an event through the system topotential end users, a transport medium interface for allowing thesystem to transport proposed event schedules between potential end usersof the system and a computer subsystem for generating for the initialend user of the system, a calendar that is adapted to contain the eventsfor that initial client, modifiable when other end users of the system,or that first user messages about events into the calendar of theinitial user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to systems and methods for automaticnetwork-based calendar availability notification and interactiveacceptance by users associated with service providers, businesses,and/or individuals.

The systems and methods of the present invention also provide forautomated appointment opening notification matching or corresponding touser-indicated availability or lead-time notification for predeterminedusers associated with service providers, businesses, and/or individuals.

These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent tothose skilled in the art after a reading of the following description ofthe preferred embodiment when considered with the drawings, as theysupport the claimed invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a method according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the drawings in general, the illustrations are for thepurpose of describing a preferred embodiment of the invention and arenot intended to limit the invention thereto.

The present invention provides for a systems and methods fornetwork-based calendar availability notification and interactiveacceptance by users associated with service providers, businesses,and/or individuals.

The systems and methods of the present invention also provide forautomated calendar opening (or appointment availability) notificationmatching or corresponding to user-indicated availability or lead-timenotification for users associated with service providers, businesses,and/or individuals. Users may be predetermined (pre-registered with thesystem for their preferences) or not. Also, preferably the systems andmethods may be provided for cloud or virtualized systems, such as aweb-based hosted solution.

Systems and methods of the present invention are not limited tobusiness-based appointments, schedule or calendar openings, for example,within a social network of a user and his/her associated with friends,the user indicates how much lead time is required in advance of an eventin order to receive or accept an invitation.

Preferably, the systems and methods of the present inventionautomatically and predictively manage notification of calendar openingsin multiple dimensions including a time dimension and a prioritydimension, wherein users may be assigned levels of priority such asfirst tier, second tier, etc., and wherein notification for time-basedcalendar openings is provided in order of priority level to matchedusers within a network (predetermined, opt-in, or opt-out), such as, forexample but not limitation a social network.

As shown in FIG. 1, the system 200 comprises a server 210 with aprocessing unit 211. The server 210 is constructed, configured andcoupled to enable communication over a network 250. The server providesfor user interconnection with the server over the network using apersonal computer (PC) 240 positioned remotely from the server.Furthermore, the system is operable for a multiplicity of remotepersonal computers or terminals 260, 270 to access the server remotely.For example, in a client/server architecture or alternatively, andpreferably, a user may interconnect through the network 250 using a userdevice such as a mobile communication device, such as by way of exampleand not limitation, a mobile phone, a cell phone, smart phone, laptopcomputer, netbook, a terminal, personal digital assistant (PDA), or anyother computing device suitable for network connection. Also,alternative architectures may be used instead of the client/serverarchitecture. For example, a PC network, or other suitable architecturemay be used. In preferred embodiments, the network 250 is the Internet,or it could be an intranet, or any other network suitable for searching,obtaining, and/or using information and/or communications, includingreceiving the notification and providing a response.

The system of the present invention further includes an operating system212 installed and running on the server 210, enabling server 210 tocommunicate through network 250 with the remote, distributed userdevices. The operating system may be any operating system known in theart that is suitable for network communication.

A memory 220 is interconnected with the server 210. Memory 220 may beintegral with server 210 or may be external to the server andinterconnected therewith. A program of instruction 222 is stored onmemory 220. According to an exemplary embodiment, the program 222 iscomputer executable code for using information derived from usage of acommunication network to develop a social network for automatednotification of calendar openings or appointment availability, or usingexisting social networks for distribution of the notification, and thenthe network users or customer users respond through the system forresponding affirmatively or negatively to the notification (accept ordecline, accept or non-response is decline, etc.). Alternatively,portions of the program for automatic notification of calendar openingor appointment availability 222 may be installed on a user's computingdevice 240; however, in preferred embodiments, the system is cloudcomputing based, with the remote client or customer computer devicesmerely accessing the system and receiving notification via the web orother network.

A remote user (either service provider or customer user) may connect tothe server 210 through network 250 from a computing device 240.According to an exemplary embodiment, computing device 240 is a personalcomputer. Computing device 240 may comprise a bus 242 interconnected tothe network 250 such as through a modem, an Ethernet card, or the like.A processing unit 244 may be interconnected with the bus 242. A memory246 may be interconnected with the processing unit 244 through bus 242.The computing device 240 may also comprise one or more input/outputdevices 248, such as a mouse, a keyboard, a printer, and the likeinterconnected to the processing unit 244 through bus 242. A display249, 269, 279 may be interconnected with the processing unit 244 throughbus 242 for providing a graphical user interface on a display,corresponding to a website, preferably interactive GUI and website.

Computing device 240 may have a program of instruction 247, such as adriver enabling computing device 240 to interconnect with server 210through network 250.

When the user enters inputs information into the memory 220, the server210 creates and updates a profile database 222. The server then executesa matching program 224 against the data stored in memory 220, whichincludes any data relating to the system for all time or predeterminedtime. The program 224 detects attributes of the usage, and uses thoseattributes to build the constraints for receiving notification oracceptance of schedule openings 224, such as, by way of example but notlimitation, for lead time indications. The server stores the constraintsand other data associated with users and profiles of businesses, serviceproviders, and/or individuals and their corresponding schedule orcalendar information 224 in memory 220. As will be described in greaterdetail below, the schedule or calendar opening notification 224 includesconcepts (represented by vertices) and relationships (represented byedges) which relate those concepts to the user.

The profile database 222, informs the schedule or calendar openingnotification agent 224 to identify concepts of interest to the user,such as, by way of example and not limitation, calendar availability,desired goods and/or services, as well as relationships, areas ofinterest, etc., and to build a network 226, such as a social network,based on those interests. This social network may be temporal,automatically being disbanded upon some completion event, such as theuser completing an appointment, or the user responding positively to aprompt to terminate or initiating a termination request to the socialnetwork. Alternatively, the social network may remain in effect untilproactively terminated by the user. Optionally, other users with commoninterests may be prompted as to whether or not they wish to join thesocial network, and added only if they take an acceptance action.

FIG. 2 is a process flow diagram illustrating a method of automatednotification and acceptance/rejection of appointment or opening in acalendar/schedule via network-based systems and methods according to thepresent invention. Basic method steps include (A) the calendar receivingan opening notification; (B) the calendar identifying at least one userwith availability, interest and sufficient lead time to change to thenewly-available opening; (C) the system auto-notifying the at least oneuser of the new opening; (D) the user deciding whether to accept the newopening. If (E) the user accepts the new opening, then (F) the calendarmarks the opening as filled; if (G) the user declines the new opening,then (B) the system searches for other available users.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the systems and methodsprovide for an automatic notification of a calendar opening from aservice provider to the server, wherein the service provider haspreferably established an account with a profile that is stored on thedatabase (this preferably follows a basic registration process,including account identification (or username) and correspondingpasscode that uniquely identify each service provider). Similarly,customer users register with the system through the internet from aremote computer device or smartphone, computer tablet, etc. Customershave additional options to designate in the user profile in addition toaccount identification (username) and passcode, including but notlimited preferred notification means, such as by SMS or text message,email, pager, mobile phone contact, interactive voice call, automaticcalendar request, and combinations thereof; lead time notificationrequirements (which can vary, depending upon the type of serviceprovider and/or services), and can be selectively modified by thecustomer user to reflect schedule changes by day, week, month, or randomchanges in situation and response time; level of priority requested,which can be based upon fee structure, e.g., higher fees for higherpriority and first notification and exclusive response period, etc.;opt-in or opt-out matching, which can vary based upon type of serviceprovider and/or services.

Customer users can register with the system by click selecting on acalendar opening notification within the website of the service provideruser, or by registering directly with the system and then providinginputs for notification requirements or restrictions in the user profiledatabase. Or a service provider may enter existing clients into thesystem. Social network connection, e.g., via facebook.com, gmail, etc.

The invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, anentirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardwareand software elements. In an exemplary embodiment, the invention isimplemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware,resident software, microcode, etc. and is implemented on a cloud-basedor virtualized network system.

Furthermore, the invention may take the form of a computer programproduct accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable mediumproviding program code for use by or in connection with a computer orany instruction execution system or device. For the purposes of thisdescription, a computer-usable or computer readable medium may be anyapparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transportthe program for use by or in connection with the instruction executionsystem, apparatus, or device.

The foregoing method may be realized by a program product comprising amachine-readable media having a machine-executable program ofinstructions, which when executed by a machine, such as a computer,performs the steps of the method. This program product may be stored onany of a variety of known machine-readable media, including but notlimited to compact discs, floppy discs, USB memory devices, and thelike. Moreover, the program product may be in the form of a machinereadable transmission such as blue ray, HTML, XML, or the like.

The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or apropagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include asemiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computerdiskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), arigid magnetic disk an optical disk. Current examples of optical disksinclude compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write(CD-R/W) and DVD.

Referring now to the examples, in general, these examples are forillustrations for the purpose of describing a preferred embodiment ofthe invention and are not intended to limit the invention thereto.

Example 1

Medical Services

For a medical office, wherein appointments are calendared for at leastone physician, such appointments being provided on an electroniccalendar or schedule that provides inputs to the systems and methods ofthe present invention via a network, such as the internet, these inputsincluding a listing of at least one appointment availability or openingwithin the calendar of scheduled appointments for the at least onephysician. Due to the appointment calendar, there may be a few weeks oreven months before the next available appointment exists, until orunless there is a cancellation. There may be a wait list of appointmentsfor next available appointment, such as for the case of a cancellation.Then the wait list of patients or users who have matched, connected, orassociated with the at least one physician, each with an indication oflead time required to receive notification and accept same for anappointment, is provided within the system and stored within thedatabase, or does the system auto search each time. Upon receipt to theappointment match system and automatic notification engine of thepresent invention, the system automatically identifies which, if any,users associated with the at least one physician have matching lead timerequired to receive notification of the calendar/schedule opening. For amatch, the system automatically sends an electronic notice, via email,text message/SMS, or phone to the user. The notice may include apredetermined response period during which a period of exclusivity foraccepting the appointment, time slot, or calendar opening. After such apredetermined response period as expired, or upon rejection responsefrom the first user notified, the system automatically providesnotification to a second user, or a group of lower priority users. Thismay be repeated until and unless acceptance of the time slot,appointment or calendar opening is filled or satisfied. Variations fromthis example may exist without departing from the scope of presentinvention.

Example 2

Personal Services

Personal services include hairdresser, massage, salon, and the like.Notifications for these appointment or calendar openings may be made asa result of a cancellation, or as a result of an opening that is notfilled. These notifications are likely first made on the basis of leadtime notification, but may also include geographic considerations of thecustomer users. Note also that discounts may be included if lead timesare short, even where the notifications are made or not made on thebasis of priority. Also, automatic notification continues until thecalendar opening is filled, with discounts being optional and beingtime-triggered, so that as the lead time decreases, when it reaches apredetermined point, then a discount is offered; multiple or higherdiscounts may be included as the lead time decreases.

Example 3

Restaurant Reservations

Similar to the other calendar opening automated notifications of thepresent invention, notification of restaurant reservations are made tothose matches between customer users (based on lead time, geography,priority, etc.) and service provider users. However, in the case ofrestaurant reservations, since the lead times may be much shorter(cancellations, etc.), it may be that the customer users are actuallyother service provider users, such as hotels, wherein the concierge thenprovides notification to guests (second tier customer users) within itsnetwork (those registered with the hotel that evening, or scheduled tobe registered at the hotel on a future evening corresponding to therestaurant calendar opening). In this way, the calendar openingnotification system and methods of the present invention provide forintegration with other calendar inputs, such as guest reservationsystems, for notification of the guest directly by the system (if theyare a registered user) or for notification to the hotel and then by thehotel to the guest (the end customer user).

Example 4

Entertainment Event or Live Performance

In the case of an entertainment event or live performance, issues withticket or seating availability may exist; since each ticket or seatingavailability is associated with a specific time and location, it may beconsidered similarly to any other calendar opening or appointmentavailability. Also, it may be associated with a predetermined number oftickets for an event occurring at a predetermined time/date andlocation, or for a series of time/date and locations. Prioritynotification is known in the relevant art, such as for reserve ticketordering or sections for season ticket holders, or for select members ofassociations, such as credit card holders of a certain type (AMEXPlatinum). However, the present invention addresses the situationwherein the assessment of calendar opening for non-predetermined ticketsor seating availability, i.e., wherein there remain unsold tickets thatwere not set aside or reserved in advance. These may be randomlydistributed with respect to cluster, date/time, location, and/orproximity to the stage or other preferred seating arrangement

Prioritization or priority level associated with the customer users maybe established by the customer user themselves throughself-identification as priority level user by paying a fee orregistering in another manner with the system overall via the profiledatabase and server, or directly with service providers, or earning thepriority status, being selected for priority status by the serviceprovider, or combinations thereof In the case of overall priority, thecustomer user is given a higher priority over non-priority level users,or lower level priority customer users of the system, and receivesnotifications in advance of other customer users (fees or other factorsmay reflect the amount of lead time, the amount of exclusive responsetime, etc., which may be in minutes or days). In the case of prioritydirectly established with the service provider users of the system, thenotification of calendar opening is indicated by the service provideruser to the system, and also includes a notification priorityestablished by the service provider, which the system automaticallyregisters and follows until the calendar opening is accepted. And in thecase of combination, wherein there is both a direct priority establishedwith the servicer provider user by the customer user, and there is acustomer-established priority overall within the system, then first theprioritization established by the service provider is followed by thesystem, and then if the calendar opening or appointment is not filled,then further notification is made according to the system priority,which takes a secondary priority level behind the service providernotification prioritization, according to preferred embodiments of thepresent invention.

Social network development within the systems and methods of the presentinvention are established by customer users directly or indirectly, byregistering selectively with predetermined service providers within thesystem (offered by selective inputs registered by the system from remotecustomer users and modifiable at any time by those customer users, suchas by click select through GUI website, dropdown select menu, etc.) orby agreeing to be notified for any service providers within the systemfor predetermined categories of services within predeterminedgeographies and/or times. Also or alternatively, service provider usersmay input pre-existing customer users into the profile database, whichmay be closed or open to those service providers only. The customerusers may agree to be open to any and all service providers of specifictypes within a predetermined geography. Alternatively, where thecustomer users and service provider users are all “friend” or “business”users within a social network, if the customer and service providerusers have been previously connected in a social network of friends orprofessional contacts, then they may be open to invitations to events solong as those notifications match requirements of lead times of thecustomer users. Note that in this case, the service provider users arethe “asking” or “inviting” users, and the customer users are the“accept” users. These invitations may be to social events, dates,parties, meetings, etc. and combinations thereof. Other matchingrequirements may be included, such as those pre-existing or thoseselectively indicated and input by the customer members at any giventime within the system. Additionally or alternatively, entire socialnetworks or subsets thereof may be introduced if an organization joinsor provides priority access to its members, for example, through anagreement with at least one service provider, or with the systemmanagement agent.

Sell/trade access to the calendar opening; this applies to all types oftransferable appointments or calendar openings, including but notlimited to professional appointments, service appointments, personalservices, tickets, events, food or other reservations, airline seats,etc. Since there is a value on each side the calendar opening “owned” bythe customer user who accepted it first is the potential “seller” andthe other customer user(s) who have an interest and value to exchangefor the calendar opening are would be “buyer(s)” of the calendar openingor time slot. Where the seller has more time flexibility, and the buyerhas less time flexibility or greater interest in reduced lead time toappointment or calendar opening, there is more value to the buyer forthat priority time slot, appointment or calendar opening. A secondarynotification system and methods exist in parallel to or subsequent tothe primary notification system as described and set forth hereinabove.In preferred embodiments, this secondary notification system and methodsare established either directly between customer users or betweencustomer users indirectly through the server on a secondary level. Inthe case of an acceptance by a first customer user of a calendaropening, wherein that first user has increased flexibility of schedulebut would like to have other offsets or compensation or other reward inexchange for conferring the now accepted calendar opening to a secondcustomer user, there is an exchange system and methods that provide forthe transferability of the calendar opening. Other customer users (apartfrom the first user who accepted the calendar opening) can request thecalendar opening; a notification of this exchange request is deliveredautomatically to the first user, unless the first user has providedwithin the profile database (either overall or selectively for thatcalendar opening that was accepted) that s/he is not willing to make anexchange. The first user can selectively accept or decline the requestfrom the other customer user(s). This request may be made directly orindirectly; it may be accompanied by an exchange offer or there may be abid process that downselects the top other customer user(s) based uponbid level and notification lead time requirements of those othercustomer user(s). In another option, the first customer user whoaccepted the calendar opening may release a notification for exchange tothe system server via the network, indicating that s/he is flexible withschedule, and would like to solicit bids or offers to exchange fromother customer user(s) who have indicated that they are wiling to acceptsuch secondary notification, or if they have not opted-out fromreceiving such notifications.

The system and methods of the present invention are preferably notlimited to business-based appointments, schedule or calendar openings,for example, within a social network of a user and his/her associatedwith friends, the user indicates how much lead time is required inadvance of an event in order to receive or accept an invitation.

Also, preferably, the present invention systems and methods for providefor automatically and predictively managing notification of calendaropenings in multiple dimensions including a time dimension and apriority dimension, wherein users may be assigned levels of prioritysuch as first tier, second tier, etc., and wherein notification fortime-based calendar openings is provided in order of priority level tomatched users within a network (predetermined, opt-in, or opt-out), suchas, for example but not limitation a social network.

By contrast to prior art calendaring, the present invention provides forthe users or customers to enter his/her geographic zone and requestingthe appointment or calendar availability. The system also preferablyprovides for a retraction option, or the ability to pull-backappointments or notifications of opportunities for calendar opening.

By way of example but not limitation, for a 4 weeks out appointment, thesystem provides for an automatic notification to all users indicatingavailability at less than 4 weeks out, but based upon appointment type,availability, etc., and also optionally based upon priority or status ofthe user within the system. Thus, the system has an automatedintelligence for automated appointment fulfillment with predeterminedprioritized candidates based upon the user-determined or user-definedfactors input to the system. So then there is a shuffling function thatis also automatic, if a first appointment by a first user is replacedwith a second appointment by a second user following the cancellation bythe first user for the first appointment, then now the secondappointment is a new slot open for anyone available within thoseconstraints, and in this case the first responder that is accepted bythe system is the second user, who has secured the second appointment,etc.

Certain modifications and improvements will occur to those skilled inthe art upon a reading of the foregoing description. The above-mentionedexamples are provided to serve the purpose of clarifying the aspects ofthe invention and it will be apparent to one skilled in the art thatthey do not serve to limit the scope of the invention. All modificationsand improvements have been deleted herein for the sake of concisenessand readability but are properly within the scope of the presentinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for automated notification of calendaropenings based on user information derived from use of a communicationnetwork comprising: a server having a memory and a processor creating aprofile in a profile database based on inputs of at least one customeruser through a computing device over the communication network; theserver building constraints for the at least one customer user receivinga notification of a calendar opening based on the profile of the atleast one customer user; at least one service provider indicating thenotification of the calendar opening through a second computing deviceover the communication network; the server receiving the notification ofthe calendar opening; the server identifying at least one available userbased on the constraints; the server automatically notifying the atleast one available user of the calendar opening over the communicationnetwork, wherein the at least one available user is selected from the atleast one customer user.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the inputsinclude a lead time required in advance of the calendar opening for theat least one customer user to be notified of the calendar opening. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein the communication network is a socialnetwork.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of theserver automatically notifying at least one other available user of thecalendar opening over the communication network upon not receiving aresponse from the at least one available user after a period of time orupon receiving a decline response from the at least one available user.5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one available user has afirst level priority and the at least one other available user has asecond level priority.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising thestep of the at least one available user paying a fee to obtain the firstlevel priority.
 7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step ofthe at least one available user earning the first level priority.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising the step of offering the at leastone available user a discount for services associated with the calendaropening, wherein the discount is based on the difference between thetime at which the step of automatically notifying the at least oneavailable user of the calendar opening through the social network isperformed and the date and/or the time of the calendar opening, whereinthe discount is a dynamic discount, wherein the dynamic discountdynamically increases as the time until the calendar opening decreases.9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of the at leastone available user releasing a notification for exchange through thecommunication network to at least one other available user.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising the step of the at least oneavailable user receiving at least one request from at least onerequesting user to transfer the calendar opening to the at least onerequesting user.
 11. A system for automated notification of calendaropenings based on user information derived from use of a communicationnetwork comprising: a server having a memory and a processor; acomputing device operable to communicate with the server over thecommunication network; and a second computing device operable tocommunicate with the server and the computing device over thecommunication network, wherein the server is operable to create aprofile in a profile database based on inputs of at least one customeruser through the computing device over the communication network;wherein the server is operable to build constraints for the at least onecustomer user for receiving a notification of a calendar opening basedon the profile of the at least one customer user; wherein the secondcomputing device is operable to receive the notification of the calendaropening from at least one service provider through the communicationnetwork; wherein the server is operable to receive the notification ofthe calendar opening from the second computing device; wherein theserver is operable to identify at least one available user based on theconstraints; wherein the server is operable to automatically notify theat least one available user of the calendar opening over thecommunication network; wherein the at least one available user isselected from the at least one customer user.
 12. The system of claim11, wherein the inputs include a lead time required in advance of thecalendar opening for the at least one customer user to be notified ofthe calendar opening.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein thecommunication network is a social network.
 14. The system of claim 11,wherein the server is operable to automatically notify at least oneother available user of the calendar opening over the communicationnetwork upon not receiving a response from the at least one availableuser after a period of time or upon receiving a decline response fromthe at least one available user.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein theat least one available user has a first level priority and the at leastone other available user has a second level priority.
 16. The system ofclaim 15, wherein the first level priority is obtained by the at leastone available user by paying a fee for the first level priority or theat least one available user earning the first level priority.
 17. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the server is further operable to offer theat least one available user a discount for services associated with thecalendar opening, wherein the discount is based on the differencebetween the time at which the server notifies the at least one availableuser of the calendar opening through the social network and the dateand/or the time of the calendar opening.
 18. The system of claim 11,wherein the computing device is operable to receive a notification forexchange from the at least one available user and is further operable tosend the notification for exchange over the communication network to atleast one other available user.
 19. A system for automated notificationof calendar openings based on user information derived from use of acommunication network comprising: an electronic schedule systemincluding at least one schedule associated with calendar-based days andtimes; the electronic schedule system having at least one servercomputer in communication with a multiplicity of remote computingdevices over the communication network for providing access to aninteractive web-based automatic calendar availability notificationwebsite and user interface associated therewith; the electronic schedulesystem operable for automatically initiating an electronic communicationfor notification to a predetermined set of users, wherein thenotification proactively indicates to those users the opportunity tosecure a position within the electronic schedule system, based upon theavailability associated with the opportunity.
 20. The system of claim19, wherein the communication network is a social network.